An aide to Chris Ngige, a former governor of Anambra State, was yesterday arrested by the police in the state over the illegal possession of election materials belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Kingsley Ezenwenyi was arrested in his hotel room in Awka shortly after he visited the commission's office to copy the deployment list of electoral officers released last Monday.

His activities drew the attention of State Security Services officers attached to the commission. He was trailed to his hotel in the outskirts of Awka where he was discovered to be in possession of materials including election result sheets and was promptly arrested.

A police source said only three people were in the hotel - two males and one female - and all were said to be members of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

The materials said to be in his possession, according to the publicity secretary of INEC, Frank Egbo include: Form EC8 A with serial number 01008997 (original and duplicate copies), sixty copies of original Form EC8(R) which are for publication of results of poll, 56 copies of Form EC8(B) which are summaries of results from polling stations and collation of Registration Area Level.

Illegal possession

The source said when the suspect was asked to explain how he came to possess the materials, he claimed he was working for INEC as a consultant to train members of the ACN for the election.

But Mr Egbo said Mr Ezenwenyi was not working for the commission.

"He already has result sheets for pasting results and it means his own results would have been ready for publication before the conclusion of voting on election day and if he does that, you know the kind of confusion that would cause," Mr Egbo said.

The spokesperson for the police, Emeka Chukwuemeka confirmed Mr. Ezenwenyi's arrest.

"He was illegally in possession of election materials," Mr Chukwuemeka said, adding that an investigation has been launched into the matter.

The spokesperson for the ACN, Okelo Madukife, claimed ignorance of the development, saying he would investigate the matter before talking further on it.

"How can I talk about what I don't know? Let me ask a few questions. I don't know what to say," Mr Madukife said.

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